’If you think that in such a delicate matter
as decoration I can bind myself to the exact pound,
I am afraid you are mistaken. I can see that
you are tired of the arrangement, and of me, and I
had better, therefore, resign.

’Yours faithfully,
‘PhilipBaynesBosinney.’

Soames pondered long and painfully over his answer,
and late at night in the dining-room, when Irene had
gone to bed, he composed the following:

’62, Montpelliersquare, S.W., ’May
19, 1887. ’DearBosinney,

’I think that in both our interests it would
be extremely undesirable that matters should be so
left at this stage. I did not mean to say that
if you should exceed the sum named in my letter to
you by ten or twenty or even fifty pounds, there would
be any difficulty between us. This being so,
I should like you to reconsider your answer.
You have a “free hand” in the terms of
this correspondence, and I hope you will see your
way to completing the decorations, in the matter of
which I know it is difficult to be absolutely exact.

’Yours truly,
‘SoamesForsyte.’

Bosinney’s answer, which came in the course
of the next day, was:

’May 20.
’DearForsyte,

’Very well.
‘Ph. Bosinney.’

CHAPTER VI

OLD JOLYON AT THE ZOO

Old Jolyon disposed of his second Meeting—­an
ordinary Board—­summarily. He was so
dictatorial that his fellow directors were left in
cabal over the increasing domineeringness of old Forsyte,
which they were far from intending to stand much longer,
they said.

He went out by Underground to Portland Road Station,
whence he took a cab and drove to the Zoo.

He had an assignation there, one of those assignations
that had lately been growing more frequent, to which
his increasing uneasiness about June and the ‘change
in her,’ as he expressed it, was driving him.

She buried herself away, and was growing thin; if
he spoke to her he got no answer, or had his head
snapped off, or she looked as if she would burst into
tears. She was as changed as she could be, all
through this Bosinney. As for telling him about
anything, not a bit of it!

And he would sit for long spells brooding, his paper
unread before him, a cigar extinct between his lips.
She had been such a companion to him ever since she
was three years old! And he loved her so!

Forces regardless of family or class or custom were
beating down his guard; impending events over which
he had no control threw their shadows on his head.
The irritation of one accustomed to have his way was
roused against he knew not what.